What part does trust play in our worship to the true God? Have you ever unwittingly spoken against God? What purpose did the plagues serve in the past? Will plagues ever be use again?
We are living in a day and time where the government is asking us to trust them. It is 2020 and we have a full-blown pandemic going on. We are starting to see some shortages of water and toilet paper. There have been some emergency declarations made, the national guard has been called up to help in the supply of food and water to the red zone. It feels like to me that we are in the time when God is starting to express his anger.
Should we start to find a place of refuge? Should we trust in men, ourselves or God? So, who are we going to trust? Your life is going to depend on it!
Psalms 91:1-16… Anyone dwelling in the secret place of the Most-High will procure himself lodging under the very shadow of the Almighty One. 2 I will say to Jehovah: “[You are] my refuge and my stronghold, my God, in whom I will trust.” 3 For he himself will deliver you from the trap of the bird-catcher, from the pestilence causing adversities. 4 With his pinions he will block approach to you, and under his wings you will take refuge. His trueness will be a large shield and bulwark. 5 You will not be afraid of anything dreadful by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, 6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in the gloom, nor of the destruction that despoils at midday. 7 A thousand will fall at your very side and ten thousand at your right hand; to you it will not come near. 8 Only with your eyes will you look on and see the retribution itself of the wicked ones. 9 Because you [said]: “Jehovah is my refuge,” You have made the Most-High himself your dwelling; 10 No calamity will befall you, and not even a plague will draw near to your tent. 11 For he will give his own angels a command concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. 12 Upon their hands they will carry you, that you may not strike your foot against any stone. 13 Upon the young lion and the cobra you will tread; You will trample down the maned young lion and the big snake. 14 Because on me he has set his affection, I shall also provide him with escape. I shall protect him because he has come to know my name. 15 He will call upon me, and I shall answer him. I shall be with him in distress. I shall rescue him and glorify him. 16 With length of days I shall satisfy him, and I shall cause him to see salvation by me.
What part does trust play in our worship to the true God? God expects us to trust in him, and to call to him by name for help. We need to seek God and view him as our refuge, as the only way to see salvation. Remember he needs to prove to be the only true God.
What is a Repurchaser?
Isaiah 41:8-14… But you, O Israel, are my servant, you, O Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend; 9 you, whom I have taken hold of from the extremities of the earth, and you, whom I have called even from the remote parts of it. And so, I said to you, ‘You are my servant; I have chosen you, and I have not rejected you. 10 Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not gaze about, for I am your God. I will fortify you. I will really help you. I will really keep fast hold of you with my right hand of righteousness.’ 11 “Look! All those getting heated up against you will become ashamed and be humiliated. The men in a quarrel with you will become as nothing and will perish. 12 You will search for them, but you will not find them, those men in a struggle with you. They will become as something nonexistent and as nothing, those men at war with you. 13 For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand, the One saying to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I myself will help you.’ 14 “Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, YOU men of Israel. I myself will help you,” is the utterance of Jehovah, even your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel.
A repurchaser is anyone who has the legal right to take us in as a kinsman, to care for us. Can we remember a time when God needed to repurchase his people and make a name for himself?
Haggai 2:4-7… But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, is the utterance of Jehovah, and be strong, O Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest. And be strong, all YOU people of the land, is the utterance of Jehovah, and work. For I am with YOU people, is the utterance of Jehovah of armies. 5 ‘[Remember] the thing that I concluded with YOU people when YOU came forth from Egypt, and [when] my spirit was standing in among YOU. Do not be afraid. 6 “For this is what Jehovah of armies has said, ‘Yet once—it is a little while—and I am rocking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry ground. 7 And I will rock all the nations, and the desirable things of all the nations must come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ Jehovah of armies has said.
What is the purpose to shake the nations? The shaking is to bring people to the knowledge that God is executing judgments. That he has a name. That he is real. He expects us to worship him as the true God.
How did God’s people escape the wrath and judgments of God in the past?
Exodus 12:12-14… And I must pass through the land of Egypt on this night and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I shall execute judgments. I am Jehovah. 13 And the blood must serve as YOUR sign upon the houses where YOU are; and I must see the blood and pass over YOU, and the plague will not come on YOU as a ruination when I strike at the land of Egypt. 14 “‘And this day must serve as a memorial for YOU, and YOU must celebrate it as a festival to Jehovah throughout YOUR generations. As a statute to time indefinite, YOU should celebrate it.
How can we escape the wrath of God that is coming?
Malachi 3:16-18… At that time those in fear of Jehovah spoke with one another, each one with his companion, and Jehovah kept paying attention and listening. And a book of remembrance began to be written up before him for those in fear of Jehovah and for those thinking upon his name. 17 “And they will certainly become mine,” Jehovah of armies has said, “at the day when I am producing a special property. And I will show compassion upon them, just as a man shows compassion upon his son who is serving him. 18 And YOU people will again certainly see [the distinction] between a righteous one and a wicked one, between one serving God and one who has not served him.”
We have found ourselves in a time where we need to ask that the sins and judgments of this world pass over us and recognize that we are in need of forgiveness.
Look at the prayer of King Solomon made at the inauguration of the first temple to the true God, and ask what can we learn?
1 Kings 8:23-40… And Solomon began standing before the altar of Jehovah in front of all the congregation of Israel, and he now spread his palms out to the heavens; 23 and he went on to say: “O Jehovah the God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the loving-kindness toward your servants who are walking before you with all their heart, 24 you who have kept toward your servant David my father that which you promised him, so that you made the promise with your own mouth, and with your own hand you have made the fulfillment, as at this day. 25 And now, O Jehovah the God of Israel, keep toward your servant David my father that which you promised him, saying, ‘There will not be cut off a man of yours from before me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your sons will take care of their way by walking before me just as you have walked before me.’ 26 And now, O God of Israel, let your promise that you have promised to your servant David my father prove trustworthy, please. 27 “But will God truly dwell upon the earth? Look! The heavens, yes, the heaven of the heavens, themselves cannot contain you; how much less, then, this house that I have built! 28 And you must turn toward the prayer of your servant and to his request for favor, O Jehovah my God, to listen to the entreating cry and to the prayer with which your servant is praying before you today; 29 that your eyes may prove to be opened toward this house night and day, toward the place of which you said, ‘My name will prove to be there,’ to listen to the prayer with which your servant prays toward this place. 30 And you must listen to the request for favor on the part of your servant and of your people Israel with which they pray toward this place; and may you yourself hear at the place of your dwelling, in the heavens, and you must hear and forgive. 31 “When a man sins against his fellowman, and he actually lays a cursing upon him to bring him under liability to the curse, and he actually comes [within] the curse before your altar in this house, 32 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, and you must act and judge your servants by pronouncing the wicked one wicked by putting his way upon his own head, and by pronouncing the righteous one righteous by giving to him according to his own righteousness. 33 “When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy, because they kept sinning against you, and they indeed return to you and laud your name and pray and make request for favor toward you in this house, 34 then may you yourself hear from heaven, and you must forgive the sin of your people Israel and you must bring them back to the ground that you gave to their forefathers. 35 “When heaven is shut up so that no rain occurs, because they kept sinning against you, and they actually pray toward this place and laud your name, and from their sin they turn back, because you kept afflicting them, 36 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, and you must forgive the sin of your servants, even of your people Israel, because you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and you must give rain upon your land that you have given to your people as a hereditary possession. 37 “In case a famine occurs in the land, in case a pestilence occurs, in case scorching, mildew, locusts, cockroaches occur; in case their enemy besieges them in the land of their gates—any sort of plague, any sort of malady—38 whatever prayer, whatever request for favor there may occur on the part of any man [or] of all your people Israel, because they know each one the plague of his own heart, and they actually spread out their palms to this house, 39 then may you yourself hear from the heavens, your established place of dwelling, and you must forgive and act and give to each one according to all his ways, because you know his heart (for you yourself alone well know the heart of all the sons of mankind); 40 to the end that they may fear you all the days that they are alive upon the surface of the ground that you gave to our forefathers.
Have you ever unwittingly spoken against God or his ways? What provision has been made for us since we have all sinned before God?
Numbers 21:5-9… And the people kept speaking against God and Moses: “Why have YOU brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread and no water, and our soul has come to abhor the contemptible bread.” 6 So Jehovah sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they kept biting the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 Finally the people came to Moses and said: “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Jehovah and against you. Intercede with Jehovah that he may remove the serpents from upon us.” And Moses went interceding in behalf of the people. 8 Then Jehovah said to Moses: “Make for yourself a fiery snake and place it upon a signal pole. And it must occur that when anyone has been bitten, he then has to look at it and so must keep alive.” 9 Moses at once made a serpent of copper and placed it upon the signal pole; and it did occur that if a serpent had bitten a man and he gazed at the copper serpent, he then kept alive.
What signal pole has been provided for us today to look at and keep living? John 3:14-15
Jesus Christ is the one that you and I need to call on and to exercise our faith in the blood sacrifice that he gave. Philippians 2:9-11
What brings the Wrath of God to an end in the future?
Revelation 15:1-4… And I saw in heaven another sign, great and wonderful, seven angels with seven plagues. These are the last ones, because by means of them the anger of God is brought to a finish. 2 And I saw what seemed to be a glassy sea mingled with fire, and those who come off victorious from the wild beast and from its image and from the number of its name standing by the glassy sea, having harps of God. 3 And they are singing the song of Moses the slave of God and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and wonderful are your works, Jehovah God, the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of eternity. 4 Who will not really fear you, Jehovah, and glorify your name, because you alone are loyal? For all the nations will come and worship before you, because your righteous decrees have been made manifest.”
The wrath of God ends when mankind acknowledges that God is righteous, true to his word, and we are willing to call on him as our God and worship him.
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